Last evening I finished the book, Lost and Found by Danelle Helget (North Star Press of St. Cloud, St. Cloud, MN, 2011). I first heard about this book and the author by stopping at her booth at the Benton County Fair two years ago, I think. I like a good mystery. I am curious about local authors. I got the impression that the author was a Christian writer, and so I figured her book would be a safe read, meaning no offensive descriptions of sex. Her business card lay on our computer desk for quite some time before I got around to ordering a copy of the book on-line. Then, the book sat in my stack on the night stand until a couple of weeks ago.
The first part of the book caught my attention and was a very quick read. By the time I got to the middle it was hard to keep going, since the book was a minute by minute narrative of Sara Martin's life over the period of about three weeks. I had to know how much alcohol she purchased at the liquor store and how much alcohol she and the other characters of the book consumed during their meals, dates and meetings. I had to know how many times she changed into a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, or a "cute" sweater or "cute" heels, and how she fixed her hair, and how well she slept, or felt sick to her stomach, or which male was piquing her interest with no apparent relation to the outcome of the story. Early in the book her exclamations of choice were "F***!" and "S***!". Towards the end of the book it changed to "Ugh!" Add to that a number of misused words such as alter for "altar", use to for "used to" and tell for "til", and I felt like I was reading the work of a high school student.
Helget's casual, unrealistic portrayal of Detective Derek Richards' work - traveling with Sara in the car, staying overnight in the cabin, engaging in physical contact with Sara while on the job, relying on Sara's help in the investigation and in bringing news of Lily's demise to her parents, made me think more of the unreality of a television cop show than of the classic relationship between detective and layman one would find in an Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers novel.
Was this a Christian story? From the standpoint of her portrayal of sex without the use of explicit detail, I would say yes. The main character also prayed and attended church services, elements of Christianity. Did Sara portray a good, Christian young woman? In my book, no. The characters gave credence to Sara's dreams, smacking more of spiritualism than of Christianity, or even of good detective work. Sara also expressed no repulsion to cohabitation, homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, or drunkenness. She was hailed as a strong character for immediately dumping her husband after learning of his adultery and staying committed to that decision without a thought to the need to forgive or to observe the vow, "til death do us part".
Was this a good read? If you are looking for fluff, go for it.
Will I look for the next two Sarah Martin mysteries? Not sure. Maybe if I find them on the second-hand market at a cheap price, and if I need something mindless to read.
